


fight for something

by logictron



Category: The Brave (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-27
Updated: 2018-06-27
Packaged: 2019-05-29 10:33:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15071339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/logictron/pseuds/logictron
Summary: "If you make me leave him here, I'll never forgive you."





	fight for something

**Author's Note:**

> So, thefab5 needed some fluff. Despite my general lack of writing lately (outside of RP), I whipped up a little something. I promise I haven't abandoned any other fics. They WILL be done. Just not today.
> 
> This was 100% not beta'd. I didn't even read over it. I wrote it in like 30 minutes. So there's that.

_"Better to fight for something than live for nothing." General George Patton_

 

They’re in Kuwait, in the middle of the smoldering rubble of what, just yesterday, was a town. Not a busy one--maybe ‘village’ would be a better term--but now it’s nothing but smoke and rock and sand. And the package. Whatever it is they’ve been sent here to retrieve. 

It’s Jaz who comes out of the wreckage of the building that was once the market, cradling a tiny bundle of soot-colored fur.

“It’s the only one,” she offers in explanation, and it doesn’t take Adam more than a few seconds to parse together what that means.

“No,” he says firmly. “No way. Put it back. We’re not here to rescue a damn animal.”

From the way Jaz bristles, Adam knows he’s already lost this argument, but he keeps at it anyway.

“We can’t leave it here! It’ll die!”

“We don’t do strays, Jaz. You know that.” He focuses on digging through the alley, toward what he knows is the back of a cafe--the town’s only one.

“Patton?” she offers, and he can _see_ the arch to her brow, even with his back turned.

“That’s...different.”

“How?” she challenges.

“Because he just showed up! I didn’t have to put him on my damn bird to get him home and risk who knows what.”

“If you make me leave him here, I’ll never forgive you.”

Adam sighs without turning around. He knows she’s telling the truth. This would be a blow--a major one--to their relationship.

“Fine. But we’re finding it somewhere else to live once we get back.”

“Hear that, buddy? You’re coming home with us.”

Adam has heard all manner of tones from Jaz, but this isn’t one he recognizes. It’s how he imagines she’d sound if she’d had a loving, supportive family, if she didn’t have walls, or baggage, or feel the need to keep her guard up all the time. She deserves that. The damn cat can stay.

**

He’s honestly a little worried about what Patton will think. He’s seen the way the dog is with the stray cat population on base, and the way he is with whatever small animals they happen to come across, and it’s not promising. But the dog trots up to Jaz as soon as they get back and she crouches down in front of him with the kitten cradled against her chest.

“He’s just a baby, okay? You gotta be gentle. You’re gonna be a good big brother, aren’t you?”

The kitten lifts a tiny paw and presses it gently to Patton’s nose and the dog aggressively sniffs for a few seconds before licking the cat, and after that, it’s smooth sailing.

**

Jaz names the kitten George. It’s only fitting with Patton around, and the two are virtually inseparable after a couple of days. Begrudgingly, Adam admits it’s kind of cute, seeing them curled up together or watching them play. And the way Jaz smiles and dotes on George makes Adam’s chest ache, not that he’d ever tell her that.

It’s when Jaz catches him getting a late night snack, feeding the kitten tuna from the can, that he knows the gig is up.

“I was just...he was hungry.”

“Uh huh.” Jaz hops up on the counter with a knowing smirk. George doesn’t lift his head from his treat, but he starts purring and Jaz strokes him gently.

“I wasn’t gonna eat it all anyway.”

“Your secret’s safe with me,” she teases, stealing a cracker off his plate. “Besides, it’s pretty cute.”

So, she thinks he’s cute. Adam has no idea what to do with that.

**

With leave on the horizon, Adam starts the process of getting Patton cleared to come home, too. He grabs a second set of paperwork for Jaz and George, and when he hands it to her, that soft, unguarded look is directed straight at him. When he thinks about it later, that’s the moment he fell in love with her for the first time, but for today, he just clears his throat and shrugs.

“Damn thing’ll destroy the whole place if we leave him here.”

“Yeah.” Jaz laughs quietly and taps her papers against his. “Thank you.”

“Part of the family now, right?”

The way she studies him after that has Adam wondering what he said for a long, long time.

**

“We’re gonna have to set up visitation,” Jaz says.

“Visitation?” Adam looks up from his bags. Jaz motions at Patton and George, who are curled up together on the couch, watching everything. 

“There’s no way those two’ll survive 6 weeks without each other.”

Adam scratches his beard thoughtfully. 

“Well, you’re going on vacation, right? What, Mexico? So, what don’t you come up to the cabin first and George can stay with us while you’re away.”

“You’re offering to catsit?”

“Come on, Jazzy, don’t make it a thing.” Except now he’s used her pet name and it’s definitely a thing.

“Okay. We’ll come to Pennsylvania.” He watches her chew her lip, and then she catches him looking and he can’t help but feel chagrined. “Not sure what I’d do for 6 weeks without you either.”

The day Jaz stops surprising him will be the day he dies, he decides. He hopes that’s not anytime soon.

**

She shows up two weeks into leave with the cat and a duffel bag, and the reunion of Patton and George is enough to distract them both from the relief of seeing each other.

That night, as they’re sitting on the couch watching mundane TV and working their way through a pack of beer, Jaz drops her head to his shoulder. George is curled up in Adam’s lap and Patton’s head is resting in jaz’s and none of them have moved for several hours.

“This is nice,” she mumbles. “Our little family.”

Adam has no idea if she realizes what she’s said, or if she even means it the way it sounds, but it makes his heart skip several agonizing beats anyway.

“Yeah,” he whispers. “It is.”

Neither of them know it yet, but this is only the beginning.


End file.
